Aerospace & Automotive Manufacturing Businesses for Sale in California.
The equipment and facility are obvious, but the real value in a precision shop lives in the quality certifications and long-term purchase orders that competitors without them simply cannot walk in and take.
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Featured Aerospace & Automotive Manufacturing Businesses in California
Showing 8 of 8 listings
Precision CNC Contract Fabricator
A contract manufacturing job shop in Northern California with $1.1M in backlog, a blanket purchase order with a major national laboratory, and a GM already running day-to-day operations.
Price$1M
Revenue$2.8M
SDE$247.6K
Government / Commercial Construction Management Firm
Sole-source general contractor at California's only nuclear power plant with a permanent badged presence at a Space Force base projecting $3B+ in infrastructure spend over the next decade.
Price-
Revenue$46.7M
EBITDA$1.9M
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Company
Precision manufacturing and metrology firm serving aviation, space, and defense clients worldwide with $1.3M in annual revenue and consistent profitability across five consecutive years.
Price$1.8M
Revenue$1.3M
EBITDA$200K
Custom Metal Fabrication Manufacturer
ISO/AS9100-certified precision sheet metal fabrication operation generating $10M in revenue with 22% net margins, a $6M backlog, and 30% growth capacity from the existing customer base alone.
Price-
Revenue$10M
SDE$2.2M
Software Codecs and Multimedia Solutions
Embedded multimedia software company with over 18 years of OEM royalty-based licensing, two pending AV1 codec patents, and a lean Shanghai engineering team serving global automotive infotainment suppliers.
Price$6M
Revenue$1.5M
EBITDA$100K
California-Based Precision Machine Shop
Family-owned CNC machine shop operating for nearly thirty years with ISO 9001:2015 certification, ITAR registration, and production runs serving aerospace, defense, medical, and oil and gas industries.
Price$300K
Revenue$448K
SDE$47.5K
Performance Exhaust Systems Manufacturer
U.S.-manufactured stainless steel exhaust components and systems for high-performance motorcycle and motorsport applications, with 75% direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales and a loyal following among racing and performance enthusiasts.
Price-
Revenue$1.5M
SDE$256.5K
Precision Sheet Metal Manufacturing and Powder Coating Business
ISO 9001:2015-certified precision sheet metal manufacturer with $4M-$5M annual revenue, operating from a 17,000 sq ft facility in Southern California across defense, aerospace, medical, and electronics sectors.
Price$2M
Revenue$4.3M
SDE$85.4K
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Due diligence
What to Look For
Practical guidance from hundreds of real acquisition conversations.
Customer Order Book
- Ask to see the customer list, how many active accounts the shop serves, and whether there are any long-term purchase orders with committed volumes.
- Shops where a significant portion of revenue comes from scheduled orders with customers who have committed for multiple years give you real visibility into what business looks like after you take over.
- Understanding whether any single customer represents a large concentration of revenue is equally important.
- Ask how long the top three customers have been ordering and whether any of those relationships are under contract.
Equipment Condition and Capacity
- Get a clear picture of the major equipment: what machines are in the shop, how old they are, and whether there's been consistent maintenance.
- A shop with well-maintained CNC machines, inspection equipment, and documented setup procedures is a very different starting point than one where key equipment is aging and deferred.
- Understanding current capacity utilization and where the ceiling is also tells you a lot about growth potential.
- Ask for a maintenance log on any major machine that represents a significant share of shop revenue.
Quality Certifications
- Certifications like AS9100, IATF 16949, or NADCAP take years and significant investment to earn and open doors with customers who require them.
- A shop that already has the relevant certifications in place is offering you something extremely expensive and time-consuming to build from scratch.
- Understand which certifications the business holds, which are company-held versus individually held, and how they transfer as part of the sale.
Skilled Workforce Stability
- The machinists, programmers, and quality technicians who understand the equipment and the customers are the core of the business.
- Ask how long the key people have been with the shop, whether setup documentation exists for major jobs, and whether institutional knowledge lives in written form or only in people's heads.
- Shops with tenured, documented teams transfer far more reliably than those dependent on one or two key individuals.
- Find out whether any key operators have indicated they plan to stay after a sale.
Revenue Concentration by Customer
- Understand what percentage of revenue comes from your top three or four customers.
- Shops with work spread across many accounts in different industries and end markets are more resilient to a single customer pulling back.
- If there is a large anchor customer, understanding the length of that relationship and whether there are long-term contracts is worth spending time on early.
Valuation
What Should You Expect to Pay?
3x-5x
SDE
Owner-operated, stable customer base
5x-8x
EBITDA
Quality certifications, long-term orders, experienced team
The spread is driven by certification status, the length and stability of customer relationships, the condition of equipment relative to replacement cost, and how much the shop runs on documented processes versus the owner's direct involvement.
What drives a premium
Long-term purchase orders from customers with multi-year commitments across different end markets
Quality certifications like AS9100 or IATF 16949 already in place and transferable with the business
Well-maintained equipment with documented capacity above current utilization
Experienced machinists and programmers with job setup documentation and tenure of five or more years
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Thinking About Selling?Read our owner's guide to selling an aerospace & automotive manufacturing business, with valuation tips, buyer expectations, and step-by-step advice.
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